


Cranberry Juice Is Sticky, Too

by viennajones



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: AO3 1 Million, F/F, M/M, fluff lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 14:25:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1188549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viennajones/pseuds/viennajones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur was a little sad that their plans for a nice evening out had been hijacked by their well-meaning but meddlesome friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cranberry Juice Is Sticky, Too

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mightypretty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightypretty/gifts).



> Happy Birthday, Darling ♥ Thank you for being your wonderful, amazing self, and for being my friend. Love you lots!
> 
> This is unbeta'ed and it's late - all mistakes were made by yours truly.

“Why isn’t Merlin here yet?“ Elena asked. She had to shout over the music that was up to a deafening volume because Gwaine had taken control over the hi-fi system. He was currently grinding up against Percy, who was much too drunk to mind his boyfriend’s inappropriate behaviour.  Arthur could see the remote threatening to fall out of his back pocket.

Arthur leaned down so he could shout back into Elena’s ear. “I have no idea. He wanted to be home hours ago!” It wasn’t like Merlin to be late. Granted, he didn’t know that their precious small house was currently being trashed by their friends’ best effort to throw Arthur a surprise party. Still, they’d had plans to go out for dinner at a nice restaurant and Arthur couldn’t help feeling slightly miffed at Merlin’s absence. One didn’t turn 30 every year, after all.

Elena, who became more perceptive and also clumsier when drunk, pressed a sloppy kiss to his forehead. She had to stand on the tips of her toes to do it and lost her balance, tipping them both over before Arthur could react. They landed on the sofa but Arthur still had the wind knocked out of him when Elena landed on his chest, spilling the vodka cranberry she’d been holding everywhere.

“Bloody hell, Ellie,” Arthur winced as he felt the liquid running down the side of his neck. Elena just giggled and pressed her head against Arthur’s side, her wild hair spilling over her face.

“Oi, Pendragon! Get your hands off my girlfriend,” Mithian hollered from across the room where she was making a path towards them. Arthur made a point of rolling his eyes although Mithian couldn’t see it and tried to sit up. Elena was like a dead weight sprawled all over him, so he just sank back and waited for Mithian to get there.

“In case you didn’t notice, it’s her who’s all over me,” Arthur said with false exasperation when Mithian’s face showed up hovering above his. She had the nerve to laugh at him, which wasn’t surprising considering she’d been doing it since the day they met. “I don’t know why I like you,” Arthur complained, trying to roll sideways without making Elena fall off the sofa.

“It’s because she’s a goddess and her vagina is a temple,” Elena grinned, finally pushing herself up with Mithian’s help. Arthur sat up and stared at Elena in bewilderment, which only made Mithian raise one of her eyebrows suggestively before she laughed at him some more.

“No, that is definitely not it,” Arthur said, shaking his head. “In fact, I hate you both. So, so much.”

“Aw, Arty. Vaginas aren’t scary, I promise you,” Mithian said with a wide grin.

“Don’t call me that. And I’m not scared of vaginas, okay? Why are we even talking about this?” Arthur asked. He was uncomfortable now because his shirt was sticking to his skin where the sweet cranberry juice dried.

“Because vaginas are awesome!” Elena exclaimed and grabbed a hold of Morgana, who was just walking by. “Hey, Morgana, do you want to talk about vaginas?”

Morgana caught Arthur’s gaze and there was a mischievous glint in her eyes that made Arthur drop his head into his hands. “Please don’t make me talk about vaginas with my sister,” he whined, because that wasn’t how he’d imagined his 30th birthday going. In fact, he’d very much counted on having Merlin’s cock inside him at this point, but Merlin had abandoned him.

“Oh, darling. If I didn’t know better I’d say you were a 14-year-old. You realise that vaginas are the reason gay boys like you even exist, right? You owe them a lot, Arthur. I think you should tell everyone,” Morgana said gleefully and gesticulated to the room at large. He knew the look on her face all too well. She was not going to let him off the hook.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Arthur said and glared at his sister. “I hope this will make you very, very happy, you stupid harpy.”

Then, he kicked his shoes off and stood up on the sofa, so he was towering over everyone and yelled “I love vaginas!” at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately, Gwaine decided to skip the song that had been playing at the same time and Arthur’s declaration rang out loud and clear, grabbing everyone’s attention. Some people cheered and clapped and Gwaine, the goddamn idiot, turned the music off completely.

“I was gone for a couple of hours and you lot come around here to throw a party and turn my boyfriend into a vagina-loving heterosexual? You’re all terrible.” Merlin was standing in the doorway with arms akimbo and a bemused expression on his face.

“Merlin! Oh thank fuck,” Arthur exclaimed dramatically and jumped off the sofa. “You’ve no idea what they’ve done to me. And you should know that Morgana made me say that. I really only love your dick,” he said when he reached Merlin and could press his face against his neck while everyone around them groaned simultaneously and Gwaine turned the music back on. He could feel Merlin’s laughter vibrating through his chest more than he could hear it.

“You big baby,” Merlin said. “I see they’ve also bathed you in pink, sugary vodka?” He let his eyes wander over Arthur’s soiled shirt and leaned in to lick at the skin above Arthur’s collarbone. “Cranberry, yum.”

Arthur grinned. “You want to help me get cleaned up?” Merlin closed his eyes in laughter. “It’s a good thing you didn’t use shitty lines like that when you met me or I never would’ve gone home with you,” he said. He took Arthur’s hand anyway and dragged him to the bathroom. When the door closed behind them it muffled the music enough so they could stop yelling.

“They threw you a surprise party?” Merlin asked when he got a towel from the cupboard below the sink and wet a corner of it before he turned back around to face Arthur. “Strip,” he ordered with a nod to the shirt Arthur was still wearing.

“Yeah. I think your Mum gave Gwaine the keys? Or Morgana stole them, I’m not sure about the details. They were here when I got home from work, anyway,” Arthur said as he pulled the shirt over his head and let it drop to the ground. Merlin gave him a stern look for good measure because he’d been nagging Arthur about his habit of dropping clothes everywhere for years.

“Well, that’s nice of them. Gwaine is going to make sure all our neighbours hate us. I’ll never understand his weird taste in music,” Merlin said, shaking his head. He started to rub the towel over Arthur’s skin to get rid of the stickiness. His free hand was trailing over Arthur’s side in fleeting touches that made him lean into Merlin and sent a pleasant shiver down his spine.

“Where were you tonight? I missed you,” he said and let his head rest against Merlin’s shoulder. It felt ridiculous saying that considering they lived together and he saw Merlin almost every day, but they’d both been so busy in the past couple of months. It seemed like they never had enough time for each other at all. Arthur was a little sad that their plans for a nice evening out had been hijacked by their well-meaning but meddlesome friends.

Merlin finished cleaning Arthur off and threw the towel into the basket that was there specifically for dirty laundry. He wrapped his arms around Arthur’s torso and pulled him into a firm hug. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier,” he mumbled into Arthur’s ears. His breath tickled as he pressed a soft kiss to the spot that made Arthur’s knees go weak every fucking time. “I couldn’t get a hold of your present before today and it took longer than I expected,” he explained.

“It’s alright,” Arthur said and wiggled away enough for him to give Merlin a smile and let him see that it was okay, too. “As long as I get my present now,” he added with a cheeky grin. Merlin laughed at him before he ducked his head the way he always did when he didn’t want Arthur to read something in his eyes.

“I’m not sure now’s the right time to do that,” Merlin said, biting his lower lip. Arthur frowned at him and ducked his head as well in an attempt to meet Merlin’s eyes but Merlin closed his eyes and took a step back.

“Hey,” Arthur said, a little worried and confused over Merlin’s weird behaviour.

“Right, sorry. It’s just…okay, how drunk are you?” Merlin looked up again and reached out to take Arthur’s hand.

"I'm not. I had two beers and then Gwaine stole the third. It was Elena’s drink that was spilled all over me,” Arthur said with a shrug. He didn’t quite understand what his sobriety level had to do with his birthday gift.

“Okay then,” Merlin said and looked around them unhappily. The heavy bass coming from the living room pulsed through the silence. Then there was a knock on the bathroom door and Freya yelled that Gwaine was about to throw up all over their carpeted floor. The next moment, Arthur was shoved out of the bathroom with Merlin and the door slammed shut in their faces.

“Fucking Gwaine,” Arthur said, shaking his head.

“Yeah,” Merlin agreed. Then, as if he’d suddenly remembered something that he’d been meaning to do for a while, he said, “Come on,” and pulled Arthur with him, up the stairs and to the bedroom. He let go of Arthur’s hand to open the door to the balcony.

“What, out there?” Arthur asked. “It’s freezing outside, Merlin.”

“Put on some clothes, then,” Merlin said, “I can’t think with all this noise.” Before Arthur could ask him what the hell was going on, Merlin had slipped outside. After a second, Arthur grabbed a jumper from the closet and put it on before he followed Merlin. Once he shut the door behind them the sounds from the party became subdued and distant.

Merlin was leaning against the rail with his hands shoved into his pockets. The expression on his face was one that Arthur wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Merlin wear before. It was freaking Arthur out. “You need to tell me what’s going on right now, love, because I’m beginning to worry about your state of mind, alright?” Arthur joked with just enough sincerity that Merlin would know to quit messing around.

“I know. I was just thrown off by the whole surprise party and this isn’t exactly how I imagined it would go, but it doesn’t really matter.” Merlin came closer to him now and put a hand on Arthur’s chest. His thumb was stroking against the soft fabric of a jumper that Arthur belatedly realised was one of Merlin’s.

“It’s simple, actually. I love you, Arthur. I love you so ridiculously much and I’m just going to-“ Merlin said and stopped. He laughed and pulled his hand out of his other pocket to hold up a ring between them. “Marry me?”

Arthur’s gaze was fixed on the ring. It was a simple golden ring with a single, deep red stone let into the band and Arthur knew it, had seen and touched it perhaps a thousand times.

“Merlin, that’s – that’s my mother’s ring,” he said in astonishment. He never thought he’d see it again, not as long as Uther was alive, anyway. The way they’d left things, Arthur had half expected that his father had been planning on taking it with him to the grave.

“It took me a while but I managed to convince Uther at last,” Merlin said, nodding. He tapped his fingertips against Arthur’s chest to get his attention and Arthur remembered that he owed him an answer.

Arthur sighed. “Do you think he’s going to want to come to the wedding?” He asked and watched as a brilliant smile spread across Merlin’s face. Arthur was sure his face looked exactly the same in the few seconds before Merlin’s lips were on his and they kissed for what felt like an eternity wrapped up into a single moment of bliss. Even once they’d broken the kiss, Arthur held Merlin close, trying to will his heartbeat to slow down again.

In the end, his feet forced him to let go. “Unless you want your future husband to lose his toes to frostbite, we should get back inside.” He still wasn’t wearing any shoes.

“I’d marry you regardless. If we’re being honest, your feet aren’t your best feature,” Merlin laughed and ushered Arthur back inside.

“I can’t quite believe that you went to see my father for this,” Arthur said when Merlin gave him the ring. It wasn’t going to fit on any of Arthur’s fingers, but Merlin went to his bedside table and pulled a matching necklace out of the top drawer.

“Really, Merlin? Where we keep the lube?” Arthur asked.

“You’re usually distracted by other things when you reach in there. I was pretty sure you wouldn’t find it,” Merlin said with a wink. “Also this is a conversation for another day, but I think that your father feels sorry for the things he said and did.”

Arthur gave a curt nod and busied himself with sliding the ring on the necklace. He knew that this was Uther’s way of reaching out and that he wasn’t going to be able to ignore him the way that Morgana undoubtedly would. Merlin was right, though. He could worry about the Pendragon family drama some other time. He put the chain around his neck and fumbled with the clasp for a moment before it closed.

“Thank you,” Arthur said. He took Merlin’s hand in his and couldn’t resist kissing him again.

“We should get back downstairs to make sure our carpet’s still vomit-free,” Merlin mumbled against Arthur’s lips. Arthur grimaced at the thought.

“Are we telling the gang yet?” Arthur asked, letting his fingers brush against the cool metal.

“Maybe tomorrow. Once we’ve figured out which of these people we still want to be friends with.” Merlin grinned and tucked the ring away underneath Arthur’s shirt where it rested against his skin, solid and steady.

**Author's Note:**

> The first part of this was inspired by this: [What Gay Guys Think About Vaginas](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd3gw3caSEk).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Best Laid Plans of Merlin Oft Go Awry -- Due To Traffic and Gwaine (the Sticky Berry Juice Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6563371) by [silence_since_silence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silence_since_silence/pseuds/silence_since_silence)




End file.
